Friday, April 29, 2011

The Mother of the Environmental Justice movement, Hazel Johnson, was honored at the 5th Annual Environmental Justice in America Conference 2011. The tribute was delivered by Dr. Benjamin Chavis at a reception during the first day of the EJ conference. Hazel Johnson died on January 12, 2011.

Hazel Johnson's daughter, Cheryl Johnson, flew in from Chicago to participate in the tribute to her mother. Cheryl delivered heart-felt comments about her mother and how much she meant, not only to herself, but to the residents of Argelt Gardens in Chicago and the environmental justice movement.

The ceremony was touching. It reminded attendees about the contributions to the EJ movement that Hazel provided. She was not dubbed 'Mother of Environmental Justice' for no reason. President Obama cut his teeth as a 'community organizer' under the tutelage of Hazel. Too bad that he did not recognize Hazel in his book. There is plenty of time for President Obama to correct this omission.

The National Small Town Alliance, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Howard University School of Law and others, kicked off the State of Environmental Justice in America 2011 Conference this week in Washington, D.C.

This year's conference theme was "Building the Clean Energy Economy with Equity," and focused on climate change, green jobs and equity for low-income, minority and Tribal populations. The main goal was to continue bringing together participants from Federal agencies, academia, business and industry, nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations and local communities to participate in a dialogue on achieving equality of environmental protection.

It was always a dream of the environmental justice movement to hold consistent meetings to address the aforementioned issues. The annual E.J in America Conference, coordinated by John Rosehthall, has made that dream into a reality.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

To support underserved populations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 office in Dallas is accepting applications for a $100,000 grant for projects that promote Green Job Training and Green Job Placement. An eligible applicant MUST BE: an incorporated non-profit organization; a Native American tribal government (Federally recognized); OR Intertribal Consortium or Consortia (AND) located within the same state, territory, commonwealth, or tribe that the proposed project will be located. In addition, an eligible applicant must be able to demonstrate that it has worked directly with the affected community.

An underserved population, for the purposes of this Request for Application, is a community, including minority, low-income, or indigenous populations or communities, that is disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks and has a local environmental and public health issue that is identified in the proposal. Projects must be performed in one of the following Region 6 states: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and/or Texas.

Environmental justice means the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race or income, in the environmental decision-making process. Environmental justice issues often involve multiple sources of contamination, like pollution from several industrial facilities within one neighborhood, environmental hazards at the workplace or home, or contamination resulting from the consumption of fish or other subsistence foods.

Applications must be postmarked by May 10, 2011. For more information, including eligibility requirements, purposes, goals, and general procedures.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Seeking input for EPA EJ Permitting Initiative by Friday April 29, 2011 In the summer of 2010, EPA launched Plan EJ 2014 - a roadmap that will help EPA better integrate environmental justice into the Agency’s programs, policies, and activities. Plan EJ 2014 consists of various efforts across the Agency focused on advancing environmental justice. One such effort is the EJ Permitting Initiative, co-lead by EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, Office of General Counsel and Region 1.

Through the EJ Permitting Initiative, EPA wants disproportionately burdened communities to have full and meaningful access to the permitting process, and EPA wants permits issued under EPA’s authorities to address environmental justice issues to the greatest extent practicable. EPA has posted their draft implementation plan and are currently soliciting comments on our plan by Friday, April 29, 2011 via their website.

As part of the EJ Permitting Initiative, EPA is assembling and, in somecases, creating tools and recommendations to better integrate e nvironmental justice into the permitting process and the permits themselves. EPA is examining templates, guidance, best practices, policy decisions, training modules, case studies, websites and other resources, as well as tools and recommendations "outside" the traditional permitting process that help to achieve real benefits for disproportionately burdened communities. EPA recognizes that other federal agencies, states, local agencies andtribal governments, as well as community organizations, non-profits,industry, trade associations and experts have first-hand experience and knowledge in this arena and EPA would like your input.

While EPA welcomes your ideas throughout their process, they would like your advice in these three specific areas as soon as possible; and therefore ask that you provide your comments via their website by Friday, April 29, 2011:

1) EPA has compiled an initial draft list of potential ideas(see Attachment A of the draft plan) and would like your commentson this list and suggestions for additions.

2) EPA seeks information on existing tools and best practices from other government agencies that can serve as a model for their efforts.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Public Meeting May 10-12 Brooklyn New York Registration is Now Open (*registration closes April 20*)

The next NEJAC face-to-face meeting will take place in Brooklyn, New York on May 10 through 12, 2011, at The New York Marriot at the Brooklyn Bridge. The meeting will include two public comment periods. Meeting Registration Registration is required for everyone (including EPA and other federal employees). The registration deadline is 12 noon Eastern Time on Thursday, April 20, 2011.Meeting materials will be prepared based on the number of participants registered on April 20. (On-site registration will be available; however, meeting materials will be distributed first to those who registered in advance. Any remaining materials will be distributed on a first-come first-served basis.) There are four easy ways to register: Online: Complete the online registration form By E-mail: Send an e-mail to Meetings@AlwaysPursuingExcellence.com with “Register for the May NEJAC Meeting” in the subject line. Provide your name, organization, city and state, e-mail address, and telephone number for future follow-up. By Fax: Print the Web page containing the registration form and fax to 877-773-0779. By Phone:Leave a message at 877-773-0779. Provide your name, job title, organization, mailing address, e-mail and telephone number for future follow-up as necessary. State whether you would like to be put on the list to provide public comment, and whether you are submitting written comments before the Thursday, April 20 deadline. Non-English speaking attendees wishing to arrange for a foreign language interpreter may also make appropriate arrangements using the email address or telephone/fax number. Public Comment Sign-up Members of the public who wish to attend or to provide public comment must pre-register by 12 noon Eastern Time on Thursday, April 20, 2011. Comments will be limited to five minutes to ensure that as many participants as possible wishing to provide a comment may do so. To accommodate the large number of people who want to address the NEJAC, only one representative of a community, organization, or group will be allowed to speak. The suggested format for public and written comments is as follows: Name of Speaker; Name of Organization/Community; Mailing Address/Telephone/Email Address; A brief description of the concern; and What you want the NEJAC to advise EPA to do.Written comments can also be submitted for the record. Written comments received by12 noon Eastern Time on Thursday, April 20, 2011will be included in the materials distributed to the members of the NEJAC prior to the teleconference meeting. Written comments received after that time will be provided to the NEJAC as time allows. All written comments should be sent to EPA’s support contractor, APEX Direct, Inc., via e-mail at Meetings@AlwaysPursuingExcellence.com or fax at 877-773-1489.

Hotel Reservations A limited number of rooms have been reserved at the prevailing government rate, under the group code “EPA-NEJAC.” If you are planning to stay at the New York Marriot for the meeting, you must contact the hotel directly to reserve your room, by calling 888-436-3759 or visiting https://resweb.passkey.com/go/epamay2011. To be eligible for the negotiated room block rate, you must contact the hotel by April 20, 2011.

In the summer of 2010, EPA launched Plan EJ 2014 - a roadmap that will help EPA better integrate environmental justice into the Agency’s programs, policies, and activities. Plan EJ 2014 consists of various efforts across the Agency focused on advancing environmental justice. One such effort is the EJ Permitting Initiative, co-lead by EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, Office of General Counsel and Region 1. Through the EJ Permitting Initiative, EPA wants disproportionately burdened communities to have full and meaningful access to the permitting process, and EPA wants permits issued under EPA’s authorities to address environmental justice issues to the greatest extent practicable. EPA has posted their draft implementation plan on their website, and are currently soliciting comments on the plan by Friday, April 29, 2011.

As part of the EJ Permitting Initiative, EPA is assembling and, in some cases, creating tools and recommendations to better integrate environmental justice into the permitting process and the permits themselves. EPA is examining templates, guidance, best practices, policy decisions, training modules, case studies, websites and other resources, as well as tools and recommendations "outside" the traditional permitting process that help to achieve real benefits for disproportionately burdened communities. EPA recognizes that other federal agencies, states, local agencies and tribal governments, as well as community organizations, non-profits, industry, trade associations and experts have first-hand experience and knowledge in this arena and EPA would like your input.

While EPA welcomes your ideas throughout their process, they would like your advice in these three specific areas as soon as possible; and therefore ask that you provide your comments via their website by Friday, April 29, 2011: They have compiled an initial draft list of potential ideas (see Attachment A of the draft plan) and would like your comments on this list and suggestions for additions. EPA seeks information on existing tools and best practices from other government agencies that can serve as a model for EPA's efforts.

EJ Conference Contact

Statement of Purpose

Mission and goals of conferences: The EJ conferences bring together individuals interested in environmental justice from diverse groups at this noteworthy juncture in the history of environmental justice, through a process of dialogue and learning from each other. The conference seeks to bring together federal employees, academics, business and industry, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, local community activists and others to participate in dialog on achieving equality of environmental protection. The conference will serve as an academic legal conference to advance scholarship regarding environmental justice.

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this blog are strictly those of the moderator and commenters. Nothing contained on this blog represents the views or official positions of the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Interior, Howard University, National Small Town Alliance, or any of the other cosponsors or coordinator of the conference.

Sensitivity Statement

"Because of the chemical sensivity of many people, we are encouraging attendees not to wear scented toiletry items."